


Care For Each Other (Teldryn Sero/M!DB)

by Nudebeme



Series: Chac and Teldryn [19]
Category: Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim
Genre: Alcohol Abuse/Alcoholism, Bi-Curiosity, Friends to Lovers, Humor, Hurt/Comfort, M/M, Platonic Romance, Underwear Kink
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-12-20
Updated: 2015-12-20
Packaged: 2018-05-07 18:32:14
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,483
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5466794
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Nudebeme/pseuds/Nudebeme
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Weakened after the departure of Vilkas from their lives, Teldryn’s companionship and watchful eyes are the only thing keeping the Dragonborn down on Nirn. It is a heavy burden, but one Teldryn would gladly carry for the love of his greatest friend. How long will it go on before the role of caretaker becomes something Teldryn would take too closely to heart?</p>
            </blockquote>





	Care For Each Other (Teldryn Sero/M!DB)

**Author's Note:**

> After a long absence, Here’s a new addition to the Teldryn Sero/Chac romance story!

The Khajiiti lands of Elsweyr. A land shrouded in mystery, from the craggy canyons to the endless flooded fields of moonsugar, it was the last place Teldryn would have ever found himself during the dry season. Wretchedly hot and without a drop of ale to quench his parched throat, it was with a great sense of gratitude to the Gods that he was blessed to have Chac at his side. The sand gave way beneath their bare feet with every step through the oasis, twin moons winking down in a reflection of the placid water beside them. Teldryn found himself unable to keep up with the Bosmer, watching him with an entirely new sort of gaze, from his swaying beaded dreads to the hand which clutched his dirty boots.

“Argh, slow down, can’t you see I’m knackered?”

Chac turned back, a playful glint in his eye “Come on, you put Dunmer to shame walking so slow on sand.”

“Sand and ash have very different textures. Why don’t you stop and take a closer look?”

“I have enough wedged in the crack of my arse to know what sand feels like, alright?” Chac laughs, one that had sounded so hollow these past two years. Teldryn would have mused on it had the Bosmer not gathered a heap of sand on his toes and kicked it back at him.

“Poh! Oh, right, how kind of you!” Teldryn growls, pulling their heavy travel packs higher upon his back “I don’t recall you treating your patsy so rudely not 30 years ago.”

“Different times, my friend.” He could hear Chac sigh, the Bosmer he watched over moving further out of his grasp. The walk back to their rented “room” wasn’t a far one, but even in the night the earth below them is hot and hard to traverse. He’d be more than happy to just sit down by the oasis and sleep here.

“You wouldn’t happen to have any of that swill left, would you?” Teldryn pants, eying Chac’s hip flask with desire. It was nasty stuff, but gods what he wouldn’t do for a pinch right about now..

“Eh,” Chac peeked back nervously, feeling the liquid swish around in the flask, all at once very unwilling to give up his nightly vice to the man who cared for him “You know I won’t get to sleep without a full tank, Teldryn.”

Frustration is what he felt next, Teldryn unable to stop himself from complaining “Won’t you even try to break that habit? You’ve been drinking yourself to sleep for months now, you can’t spare a drop for your old friend?” The look Chac gave him after that, Teldryn should have gotten furious. The selfish one that Chac gave whenever he had to have his way..oh, he was not a stranger to that look. But something however made Chac change his mind, maybe simply looking upon the sight of his Dunmer friend breaking into a sweat carrying their belongings while he himself walked empty handed.

“…Sure.” Chac frowns, stopping and watching as the belabored Dunmer approaches him, his chest heaving with effort. Surprised, Teldryn didn’t turn down the drink he offered, the potent stink of Khajiiti brandy stinging his throat. What was going through Chac’s mind as he watched his vice being guzzled before him went unnoticed; Teldryn appreciated it.

“To be honest, I wasn’t expecting you to share.” Teldryn grins, reaching up and patting the elf’s bare shoulder, resting faintly on his warm skin. He’d been improving lately, Teldryn would like to say. The way Chac smiled and turned to leave him once again gave the Dunmer a moment to really think about what he’s accomplished these past two turbulent years.

Chac is a good liar. He says he’s fine, smiles and gives a strong face, but Teldryn knows him better than that. Teldryn could tell sometimes that he’s far from fine, that he wants to lay down and sleep for as long as it takes to forget his heartache. Being his friend and guiding Chac away from his torment may be one of the toughest undertakings in Teldryn’s life, but he couldn’t imagine himself doing anything else. One could even say it’s what his entire life revolved around now- the life of someone else. 

It wasn’t long until the welcoming sight of their rented ‘room’ graces them, nothing more than a collection of skin tents surrounding a communal firepit, blazing warmly enough to awaken the fragrant blossoms dotting the camp. They weren’t alone here, the muted chatter of cat-folk adding a sort of otherworldly atmosphere, the strumming of wooden Ouds. Teldryn was happy to be back, Chac parting the flap of their tent to let the Dunmer throw their packs onto the rugs. A weight off his back and a drink in his belly, Teldryn was satisfied.

“Well, what now? I can’t tell what bloody time it is down here. Doesn’t seem right to turn in so soon.”

“I don’t know about you, but that water’s looking perfect for a quick rinse. I can’t sleep covered in sand.”

“Oh, but you seemed  _sooo_ snug just the other night when you pissed yourself and fell asleep on the sand!” Teldryn grins widely, a subliminal bitchiness here and there that Chac had long since ignored. “You never even thanked me for the common decency to dig a hole in the ground so you wouldn’t be huffing gravel all night.”

“Uh, thanks. I don’t know what I’d do without you.” Chac alarmed the elf by suddenly dropping his trousers, granules of sand stuck tight to the skin of his thighs. Teldryn fought for a response, but that nagging feeling silenced him, Chac turned away and unaware of the lingering gaze of his red eyes. The Dunmer didn’t stray until he unraveled his underpants, spilling around his feet and leaving him nude.

“I’m taking a dip, you can join me if you want.” Chac sighs, turning tail and walking out, a gentle breeze keeping the tent flap open long enough for Teldryn to watch him wade into the water. The way the light bent around him in ripples was artistic, and the Dunmer didn’t have a label to place upon what he was feeling. Intrigue? Maybe..he hasn’t bothered struggling for a softer word.

He just wasn’t sure if it was a good feeling, or not.

Teldryn spied upon Chac from afar, seeing his silhouette slip into the water until he vanished entirely. Only then did the tent close, leaving the Dunmer to his own thoughts and the little pieces of Chac that remained scattered on the floor. Rolling on his side, Teldryn lazily pulled the elf’s pants to him, folding them neatly into a square at Chac’s bedroll. He gave the flask a little shake, tipping the last few droplets of brandy onto his tongue just to savor the taste of liquor on his breath.

Being alone was rare, and normally Teldryn saved more intimate moments reconnecting with himself to times like these. A quick tug before a dip in the oasis? Teldryn thought about it, but knew the Bosmer’s keen sense of smell would pick up even the faintest trace of his essence. Best not, if there was one thing Teldryn still got awkward about around Chac, it was having the guy know exactly when he jerked off and knowing just how much of a horny bastard he is.

Impatience overwhelmed him, Teldryn loosening the clasp on his pants and wriggling his body against the ground, getting cozy. A fingertip traced along the intricate stitching of the Khajiiti rug below him, following the pattern in circles until his hand came to rest at Chac’s discarded underwear. Teldryn’s ears pricked up in curiosity, finding the courage in privacy to feel the fabric, how warm and soft it felt from a long day’s use. A thought crossed his mind, eyes glancing at the direction of the tent flap before wringing the britches in his grasp.

How would he react if he just…took a whiff? Just one? Teldryn had always enjoyed the carnal smell of a woman’s panties; it wasn’t necessarily the scent itself, but something within it that excited him. Some animalistic behavior that still lingered within every man. Would it arouse him the same way a woman’s scent would? He felt awful for thinking it, but damn it all if he wasn’t curious.

He could hear Chac talking outside, accompanied by a beast-man’s voice. He was occupied, and Teldryn couldn’t let the mystery go unsolved. Laying upon his back, Teldryn let his eyes drift shut and rolled the fabric of Chac’s undergarments across his nose, inhaling deeply. What he got, he wasn’t expecting; such a subtle musk mixed with the smell the Bosmer always wore. Warm, and elven. He should have been chastising himself by now, but he only rolled the fabric again, nuzzling it while taking another long inhale. He could feel heat pooling in his core, the sensation startling him enough to toss the underwear across the tent.

“Ugh, what are you doing, filthy fetcher?” Sero cursed himself, rubbing his temples between his fingers and giving a low growl of disgust. As soon as the heat rose it vanished, leaving only a shocked Teldryn to sit bolt upright and tug off his shirt, to get into the water and scrub himself clean. Naked and a little less sure of himself, he wraps a red cloth around his waist and leaves the tent, only to see a still-nude Chac sitting beside the water with an elderly Khajiit, sharing tokes from a long wooden pipe.

“Come to join the party?” Chac grins, Teldryn all too aware of his cock sitting out in the open for everyone to see. Teldryn wasn’t keen on the idea of a little naked powwow with an old cat, and only scoffed as he sat himself into the warm water, diving under to get away from Chac even for a second.

“Such a warm-hearted soul.” The Khajiit jokes, finding the Dunmer’s stiffness amusing.

“Oh, he’s one in a million.” Chac starts, Teldryn surfacing and giving suspicious eyes to the pair that watched him “-Wouldn’t trade this  _jihatt_   _dugo_ for the world.” The Bosmer was looking warmly upon his friend, enjoying how his soaked mohawk lay flat against his forehead.

“Talking about me, are you?”

“He spoke much of you to Khajiit, and tells him you are-as they say- a _fetcher.”_  The cat coughed, scratching the ash from the inside of his pipe with a dagger-like claw. Teldryn was bemused, rinsing the soot off his neck and chest.

“Oh, lovely. I’m glad he realizes that we have a mutual understanding of each other.” He refused to look at Chac for more than an instant, but Teldryn was caught staring at how Chac’s soaked dreads lay flat against the curves of his shoulders, how beguiling they looked. He still hated it.

“A jest, of course. Love such as yours is rare, like a flower blooming in the harshest canyons. Now, Khajiit will leave you to each other, may you sleep well.” The old cat stood, hobbling on old bones back towards his tent, the source of the strumming music.

Teldryn crawls out of the water, still wrapped in the drenched towel. “What did he mean by that, 'love such as yours’?”

“I told him you where my lover.” Chac laughs, Teldryn’s heart stopping only for a moment in his chest.

 

“…and  _whyyy_  did you say such a ridiculous lie?”

“As a joke, you know me.” His laugh was wicked, the Bosmer standing to dust off the sand from his rear. “I’ve been around plenty of Khajiit, they love a smooth, hairless ass when they can find one.”

“Oh, so you pin this love affair on me to save yourself from the barb? I see how it is.” Teldryn grumbles, sometimes feeling at wits end with his batty friend. Sero was followed back into their shared tent, Chac surveying the surroundings. His folded pants, how Teldryn’s lay still strewn about carelessly.

“Been kicking my knickers around, have you?” Chac picks up his underwear with his toes, lifting them to his hand. Teldryn gulped, unconsciously sniffling.

“I swear they where starting to crawl towards me. That’s not how I want to die.”

Chac brought his own underwear up for a sniff, giving Teldryn a skeptic look “Oh come now, they don’t smell bad at all. You’re a lunatic.”

“And you’re the one sniffing em’.” Teldryn sighed, knowing how much of a prick he is for saying it. “Now put some clothes on, before the old cat comes knocking and thinks we really  _are_  gay.”

“…I hate to break this to you, but I’m g-”

“Well, you know what I mean! Look, here, just put this on and I’ll shut up, I swear.” Teldryn throws him a fresh pair of linen slacks from Chac’s traveling pack, being freed from his naked form once again. Teldryn mimics him, preparing his bedroll for sleep, watching Chac from the corner of his eye as he pathetically shook his empty flask and tossed it.

“Do you think I could buy some rum off of the caravan leader?” Chac asks, desperate to get wasted enough to fall asleep and silence his memories. Teldryn hated the fact he had to ask  _every night_.

“Why don’t you try falling asleep sober for once?”

“I’ll be up all night, trust me.”

“Don’t do it, Chac. This is getting out of hand.”

“Things getting out of hand is a reoccurring theme in my life, don’t you think?” Chac grins, standing and leaving the tent to go find his vice-

“Wait! Don’t!- oh, fine, go on then.” Teldryn growls, shaking his head in disdain. Whatever, let the Bosmer face his demons another day. He understood Chac was in great pain, but dealing with him getting shitfaced on a nightly basis for months on end was getting fucking exhausting. Sero wished he could just find a way to make him happy without such iniquity.

Teldryn was good at letting someone know he was upset, and didn’t bother to hide it. He dimmed the lanterns inside their tent until only the illumination of the bonfire across the tent skin was the only source of light within. There he lay, arms crossed in his bed for Chac’s return; to let the Bosmer know what he really thought.

A few minutes went by, and then some more. Chac didn’t return, and it was with a great sigh that Teldryn got up, crawling to peer outside the tentflap and being angered by what he saw.

Chac was sitting alone in front of the fire, drinking heavily from a new bottle of booze. It made Teldryn grind his teeth seeing how he took steady pulls of it like water, trying to get drunk as fast as possible. Chac seemed to realize he was being spied on, and made eye contact with the angry gray face peeking out from the tent.

“What’s the matter?”

“What in Oblivion do you think is the matter? Get your sorry ass in here before I destroy you!”

Chac had an infuriating way of keeping a situation mellow even when Teldryn tried to throw his dominance around- you just could never get the damn elf to do something he didn’t want to do. He just gave him that shit-eating grin and took another drink, setting the bottlecap aside to show he wasn’t done yet.

“Sure, I’ll be in soon.”

“Soon? More like now, with at least half of that rum still in the fucking bottle. Move it!”

“Yeah.”

“Are you planning on pissing your pants again tonight? Or do you want it out of the way now, and let me piss on em’ for you?”

“Teldryn, people are trying to sleep.”

“Which is what you should be doing. Fine, you know what? Stay out there.” Teldryn had been defeated, and he was frankly exhausted by the time he was done buttoning up the tentflap that he just decided he’d go to bed now and forget about it. He can’t remember ever getting so worked up over stupid arguments, because frankly in the past he’d be out the door for good and onto someone new at the first sign of a quarrel.

He shut his eyes tight, and tried to sleep. But he just couldn’t get the frustration out of his head. He’d simply never cared for anyone the way he cares for Chac. He’d promised to his children and to his dead husband that he’d watch over the Dragonborn should his broken heart make him reckless- and he has been dutifully, since that day. The undeniable fact that Teldryn was growing so fond of Chac these past months is starting to wear heavily on him, finding it harder to hide.

Lashing out at him didn’t even work anymore. He just had no idea what to do with this drunken wreck he called his best friend. Life would be a lot easier if he where to just pick up and leave, to let Chac deal with his issues at his own pace; he had an elves’ lifetime, didn’t he? Even if his children grow older?

Teldryn thought long and hard about his friend, until the day’s adventure took it’s toll and left him to fall asleep alone in their tent. It was a dreamless sleep, however brief it felt-

Because he woke up with a start, his worrying mind even in sleep remembering that Chac wasn’t with him. How long had gone by, he hadn’t a clue, but it was silent outside apart from chirping crickets, and Chac was still missing from his bed.

“S'wit.” He rubs his eyes, crawling on hands and knees to the tent and peeking out, somehow too exhausted to be surprised that Chac was laying there on his side directly in front of the tent, completely comatose. Teldryn unbuttoned the tent even if he should have just let the birds peck at his lifeless body, leaning down to inspect the elf. It looked like Chac had made some attempt to open the tent flap before giving up and passing out on the spot.

Limp and reeking of liquor, Teldryn leaned down and slapped Chac’s face with the back of his hand.

“Wake up, you drunk.” No answer, Chac was happily void of all the things he ran from, dumped so conveniently onto Teldryn’s shoulders. The Dunmer reached down and hauled the elf into his arms, carrying him like a bundle of logs into the tent, dragging sand and other unpleasantness in with him.

Sero still had enough care left in him to lay the elf back onto his bedroll, draping his dreads in a fan about his head to dry. Teldryn saw no point in being rough on an unconscious elf, even taking care to tilt his head to the side just in case he should vomit and choke in his sleep.

He took a good long look at the elf, now only feeling compassion for his friend who’s lost so much. Chac looked as young as he did they day they met on Solstheim, and had hardly changed the thirty two years they’ve been best friends. He’d been there all throughout his marriage, watched his children grow and his husband age until he was gray and weary, knowing the day would come where Vilkas would be gone.

Teldryn swallowed, listening to the elf’s rhythmic breathing. He noticed granules of sand stuck fast to the beard by his lips, curiosity overcoming him. He swiped lightly at them, The warm skin of Chac’s lips being pulled so slightly by his touch. His beard was wiry much like Sero’s own, a significant sensation Teldryn sought more of by tracing the angles of Chac’s face. His travels brought him south, fingertips resting at the bulge on the Bosmer’s throat. For someone so fierce in battle, so stubborn, it was alarming how placid he looked as he slept.

But Teldryn should sleep now. He wasn’t keen on Chac waking up finding him so close, should he even remember come tomorrow morning. Teldryn only hoped for better luck taming him tomorrow, giving his beloved friend a glimmer of peace. A strong desire cropped up in Teldryn’s mind, having this warm body so close to his… He doesn’t fight the urge, leaning down and placing a kiss upon the Bosmer’s cheek so softly it wouldn’t wake a newborn.

He thought of it as a wish of some sorts, that things where soon to change for the better. He was too upset to even care about his own actions, too tired. He left Chac at his side of the tent, curling up into his soft bedroll to get some sleep before he could think too far into it. Tomorrow is another day, and another chance to bring hope back into their lives.

 


End file.
